Will We Stand Still

Chapter 30

"Okay, I have my phone, my credit card, my ID..." Marylinde was quickly looking through her purse. Because George had won and Lando had miraculously finished second, the gang was going out for a couple of drinks. Marylinde herself didn't do that poorly as well, she had dropped back to P7, but it was one of her best drives yet. 

And - if she had to believe her friends, the drinks were to celebrate the fact Marylinde had survived yet another weekend without a panic attack as well. The weekend had been proof she was not spiralling as much as Marylinde thought she was.

"You have everything you need to have a fun night out. Whatever you forget now is a problem for later." Lando was impatiently waiting by the door. He had been on the final shift of the weekend.

"The card to my room." Marylinde quickly took it from her bedside table and put it in her purse. "Knew I was forgetting something important. Now I have everything." She smiled sweetly at Lando before walking out of the door. Lando closed it and, together, they walked to the bar where they would begin the evening. Later, after having downed a couple of drinks, they were going to move on to a club.

"Again thanks, Lando. To all of you, but you especially. I don't know whether I would have been able to make it through the weekend without any of you."

"Don't worry. We all did it with so much love for you."

At the bar, Marylinde and Lando joined the rest of the group who already were on their second drink.

"See, I told you we were going to be late."

"A queen is never late. Everyone else is simply early." Justine squealed.

"Oh my goodness! Yes, girl! I didn't see you as the type of girl to have watched that!" Marylinde huffed.

"Of course I have. Queen Clarisse is just too much of a queen to skip past. Even though I am not the kind of girl to usually watch princess movies."

"You cried." Marylinde hushed George.

"That is not of importance right now. What is, is the 'Princess Diaries' and that none of you barbarians understood my reference." Mick raised his hands in defence.

"I did. Justine made me watch it at least three times already, so don't look at me." Lando came back with his drink and Marylinde's cocktail and handed it over to her. He had fled as soon as Justine started to get too excited and hadn't heard a thing about what the conversation was about.

"Lando, there is a discussion going on and I need your help." Lando looked around the group where he was getting multiple signals to not respond to it. It was screaming danger all over.

"Yes?" He hesitantly said.

"Where is the quote: 'a queen is never late, everyone else is simply early from." Lando's eyes reflected the panic he was feeling as he looked from his best friend to the rest of the group where Max was chuckling. He didn't know.

"Disney?" Marylinde looked at Justine.

"Technically he isn't wrong..." Marylinde had to agree. The two movies were part of the Disney franchise.

"Well give it to you. At least you knew more than all the guys here."

"Again, I knew!" They enjoyed their drinks at the bar and when it was time to leave for the club, they were still laughing. All of them were already tipsy at best. But who was going to stop them after two out of the group of friends had finished on the podium that day?

The club they had planned on going to was down the street, so they walked the five minutes it would take to get there. They laughed at each other's jokes and laughed even louder when Marylinde jumped on Max's back. He hadn't seen it coming however and nearly stumbled to the floor.